A Prompt Smack In The Face
by SmileXDanceLove
Summary: How a strange turn of events can lead to the happiest moment of Seth Clearwater's life.
1. A Prompt Smack In The Face Chapter 1

A Prompt Smack In The Face

- Or How Seth Imprinted

Why? Why must life be so unfair?

Sam and Emily are happy and are awaiting their second daughter, Quil's teaching Claire how to read, just waiting for her to grow up, Jared and Kim just got accepted to Washington State, Embry and Sarah are getting to know each other, Rachel is probably making Paul some food as I think this, and Jake is most likely ogling at Renesmee, just so in love.

And then there's Leah. _Leah_, my supposed –ugh- "menopausal" sister even imprinted. Will I have to be like her though? Do I have to go across the country all the way to New York, just to get away for a little while, in order to not be alone anymore? Pierce is cool, I guess, but couldn't I have had one thing to hold against my sister, that I imprinted earlier?

I am the only original member of the wolf pack who hasn't imprinted, and God damn it, I'm sick of it. Everyone else has better things to do than stare at their bedroom ceiling, waiting for the summer heat to cool into night. Except me. Do you know why? 'Cause I haven't imprinted! You know, sometimes I really regret having my genes. At least regular people can stay in a relationship because the laws of nature don't bind him/her to one person on the planet. They can at least go on a couple of dates and don't have to say "look, its been fun while it lasted, but we apparently don't mesh well cause I'm not seeing stars or anything close to insanity". I have dated girls. Pretty ones, smart ones, pretty and smart ones, but the odds don't like me.

What am I doing here? If I'm going to be alone all night, I might as well do something fun. Go risky business style, blast heavy metal. Wait. I don't _have_ to be alone. At least one of the guys has to be free tonight. Who to call first? Quil?

"Hey Seth, what's up?" Desperation, loneliness.

"Um…nothing much. Just wondering if you wanted to go out?"

"Ugh, sorry man-"

"Claire?"

"No actually, but I have to run a couple of errands for my mother."

"Ah, ok. I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

Okay. That's a reasonable excuse. How about Embry? After the first ring, I was answered by giggles from the other end.

"Hello?" Some more chuckles, but now there were two laughs, Embry's and-

"Embry! Stooop!" –Sarah's. Ugh.

"Uh, this is Seth, but I can see you're busy and it wasn't important. Sooo…"

"Bye." A little more laughing until the line clicked off.

Thank you Embry, for the kind reminder.

"Seth?"

"Jake."

"Yeah?"

"I can understand if you're busy… but I was wondering if you wanted to go out tonight?"

"Um…Nessie- "

"Ok, I'll find someone else." So much for that.

"No, wait. Nessie just fell asleep."

"In that case, could you meet me at Ailey's?"

"Sure. See you in…like, twenty minutes?"

"Yeah. Bye"

Jake was strangely _always_ someone I could rely on.


	2. A Prompt Smack In The Face Chapter 2

Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting in a booth at Ailey's drumming on the red and white checkered tablecloth. A couple minutes later, one my hands were really sore from one of my own compositions, Jake, a now 7 foot 2 inch man stormed through the swinging door. He searched for me for a few seconds, landed on my face, and grinned. He walked to the opposite bench, sat down, and did the awkward one-armed hug thing.

"Seth! It's been a while!" I was surprised that he seemed genuinely happy to see me.

"You too man," but boy, did he reek. "How's Nessie?" It was sweet how at the mention of her name, he kind of lit up, like a glowing pregnant lady, but for my situation, it was really agitating. Why I reminded him, I don't know.

"Well, she's great. There are so many times of the day when I wonder how I got so lucky," At this point, my joyous façade fell, and he noticed. "And what the hell is wrong?" I gulped a little bit.

"I'm tired."

"Of what?"

"Of watching every one of you imprint, find joy, cling, and do nothing else with your time than gawking. It's just disturbing, that's all." He squinted, like he could see into my head if he changed focus.

"No, I can tell it's not."

"It is."

"Does this have anything to do with the fact that you haven't imprinted yet?" Maybe he could.

"No!" He cocked his head to the side, raising his eyebrows.

"…Yeah."

"I've been there, Seth. You don't remember two summers ago, when Bella was pregnant? I hated the world, and everyone in it. But it happened! Look at me now!"

"Honestly Jake, have you noticed that my family has trouble with the imprinting process? Leah just imprinted, and she's 23. Am I doomed to live a life of solitude until I'm, what? 30?"

"Oh! That reminds me, how is Leah?" Their new friendship wasn't something I was interested in at the moment. He noticed my irritation.

"You never know, Seth. Maybe next week you'll find the love of your eternity buying cheese doodles in the local supermarket."

"Yes, I will check the cheese doodle section daily, if it really makes you happy."

"It'll happen man, it will. Trust me."

"Its just that as everyone is getting on with their lives, we all kind of separate. Its common knowledge that we'll always be brothers, but when everyone's off with their imprints, you get to feeling lonely."

"Again Seth, been there, done that. It will happen."

In the next hour we ate a couple of cheeseburgers, coke, the works. Talking was nice. Way better than my pale blue ceiling. We got on to talking about Claire's fifth birthday party on Saturday, as Quil is adamant at making us all go.

"It'll be nice to have the gang together all at once again. Hey, is Leah going to be back by then?"

"Yeah, she's flying in on Monday with Pierce."

"Cool. I wanna meet him. Beat him in an arm wrestle, you know."

Ugh. I was this close to getting a headache from all of the screaming kids. There was something from Jake and I's conversation last week at Ailey's that made me happy to be here. Maybe I'll meet someone. A cousin, you know. And so what if I don't imprint, there has to at least be some eye candy here. At this point, Claire was twirling around, blindfolded, princess hat and all, waiting to hit the piñata (funny, it was shaped as a wolf) hanging from a tree in her backyard.

"No Claire! You're not supposed hit your guests! The piñata!" Quil was chasing Claire, who was chasing a boy from her class. I think Quil was quite jealous. I was the only one watching this spectacle, as everyone else was welcoming Leah and Pierce.

Claire then took off her blindfold, stick in hand, and started chasing Quil, although if she put all of her force into hitting him, he wouldn't feel it.

"She's cute isn't she?" Leah had crept up behind me.

"It really amazes me how hospitable you've become."

"Love changes you." She said this before putting her arms back around Pierce, and going off to chat with Billy.

Quil was now trying to bargain with the birthday girl.

"If I give you a cupcake, will you go back to your guests?"

"ummmmm…No!"

"Please Claire, for me?" He gave her his toothy grin. She smiled her mischievous smile back.

Simultaneously, I could hear a girl of about sixteen talking to who I would guess to be her sister, one of Claire's friends.

"Oh, isn't the weather just lovely! What a beautiful- " And midway she clapped my face.

_SMACK._

Could this week get any worse?

The left side of my face was covered in frosting, where the right side pounded with the sting of a prompt smack in the face. Two things I heard, one thing I felt.

The first was Claire and the rest of the guests doubled over in laughter, especially the guys, and Quil's endless apologizing.

"I am sooooo sorry man! Claire hit me on the back, which jolted me forward, and I guess the cupcake went straight to your face! I'm so sorry!" Out of humor, I wiped some frosting of my cheek, and put it in my mouth. Mmm. Chocolate.

Then what did I feel? A colder than mine but warmer than vampire hand tapping me lightly on the shoulder. I turned around waiting for more endless apologizing for the slap, like the bottomless soup bowl at the local diner, except I really just wanted to get on with my day. What I received though was way more than apologies.

I heard a loud gasp and already "Oh my god" before I was fully turned around. I was preparing to say "it's okay" but I was interrupted.

Because the girl in front of me, apologizing, who the hand belonged to, was the single most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

Long red ringlets surrounded a heart shaped face, where the lips were full, and as she talked, I couldn't help but be entranced. Then, as I went up, the world, besides her, went upside down. Her eyelashes were long and regal. And her eyes. Her eyes, a light summery green, just sucked me in. I thought I was struck by lightning. Except, instead of dying, I became more…alive. My eyes widened. That's where the rain started.

It was like being underwater, as I couldn't hear anything but muffled voices. And before I knew it, we were alone.

"Hello?" She spoke with a voice of angels. I swore a chorus of hallelujahs went off somewhere.

"Oh." I swiftly scraped the icing off of my cheek. I stuck my hand out.

"Seth." She put her delicate one in mine. And smiled a joyful smile.

"Marissa." Ah. Marissa.

Out of the corner of my eye, Jake, Embry, Quil, and Paul were situated at the inside of the glass patio doors, puckering their lips, making kissing motions. I raised my eyebrows.

"Its very nice to meet you, Marissa," Her name rolled of my tongue, a very sweet melody. "Lets go inside." As she headed off into the doors, looking back at me once, the rest of the pack stared at me. And with the excitement of scoring a touchdown in the last second of the game, my fists pumped into the air, with accommodating applause from the other side of the door. I stared into the sky, letting a summer rainbow wash over me.


End file.
